50% off Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Third Edition (10-Volumes)

This discipline-defining encyclopedia serves research needs in numerous fields that are affected by the rapid pace
and substantial impact of technological change and is a must have for every academic library collection.
Expires 12/31/2016.

Abstract

To paraphrase Winograd (1992), we bring to our communities a tacit comprehension of right and wrong that makes social responsibility an intrinsic part of our culture. Our ethics are the moral principles we use to assert social responsibility and to perpetuate safe and just societies. Moreover, the introduction of new technologies can have a profound effect on our ethical principles. The emergence of very large databases, and the associated automated data analysis tools, present yet another set of ethical challenges to consider. Socio-ethical issues have been identified as pertinent to data mining and there is a growing concern regarding the (ab)use of sensitive information (Clarke, 1999; Clifton et al., 2002; Clifton and Estivill-Castro, 2002; Gehrke, 2002). Estivill-Castro et al., discuss surveys regarding public opinion on personal privacy that show a raised level of concern about the use of private information (Estivill-Castro et al., 1999). There is some justification for this concern; a 2001 survey in InfoWeek found that over 20% of companies store customer data with information about medical profile and/or customer demographics with salary and credit information, and over 15% store information about customers’ legal histories.

Background

Data mining itself is not ethically problematic. The ethical and legal dilemmas arise when mining is executed over data of a personal nature. Perhaps the most immediately apparent of these is the invasion of privacy. Complete privacy is not an inherent part of any society because participation in a society necessitates communication and negotiation, which renders absolute privacy unattainable. Hence, individual members of a society develop an independent and unique perception of their own privacy. Privacy therefore exists within a society only because it exists as a perception of the society’s members. This perception is crucial as it partly determines whether, and to what extent, a person’s privacy has been violated.

An individual can maintain their privacy by limiting their accessibility to others. In some contexts, this is best achieved by restricting access to personal information. If a person considers the type and amount of information known about them to be inappropriate, then they perceive their privacy to be at risk. Thus, privacy can be violated when information concerning an individual is obtained, used, or disseminated, especially if this occurs without their knowledge or consent.

Huge volumes of detailed personal data are regularly collected and analysed by marketing applications (Fienberg, S. E. 2006; Berry and Linoff, 1997), in which individuals may be unaware of the behind-the-scenes use of data, are now well documented (John, 1999). However, privacy advocates face opposition in their push for legislation restricting the secondary use of personal data, since analysing such data brings collective benefit in many contexts. DMKD has been instrumental in many scientific areas such as biological and climate-change research and is also being used in other domains where privacy issues are relegated in the light of perceptions of a common good. These include genome research (qv. (Tavani, 2004)), combating tax evasion and aiding in criminal investigations (Berry and Linoff, 1997) and in medicine (Roddick et al., 2003).

As privacy is a matter of individual perception, an infallible and universal solution to this dichotomy is infeasible. However, there are measures that can be undertaken to enhance privacy protection. Commonly, an individual must adopt a proactive and assertive attitude in order to maintain their privacy, usually having to initiate communication with the holders of their data to apply any restrictions they consider appropriate. For the most part, individuals are unaware of the extent of the personal information stored by governments and private corporations. It is only when things go wrong that individuals exercise their rights to obtain this information and seek to excise or correct it.